And in an alternate timeline…League Finals!

In this week’s journey into a track and field multiverse, Monta Vista had planned travel to league finals at Cupertino.  In our current reality, we have a slightly different story to tell…

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LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS!

If you’re like me, you have been spending your Sunday evenings watching the ESPN documentary on Michael Jordan. What always struck me about Jordan, other than his other-worldly skills on the court, was how every single person who ever met him said he is the most competitive person they have ever met. That he would challenge friends and teammates in random tasks throughout the day (getting to/from the team plane, shoe tying), new sports he hadn’t played yet (golf, table tennis) and more. The mentality to constantly compete and strive for greatness is what made Jordan, in the words of the documentary, potentially “The best person to ever do his job, out of any job, in the history of jobs.”  Think about that and let that sink in for a second…

The differences between ‘athletic people’ and ‘athletes’ is that athletes absolutely need to compete. It’s in their blood, in their DNA. 

One of the many reasons I feel so fortunate to be your coach is that this team, and this group, have so many true athletes. Kids who don’t care what the ‘event’ is, what the circumstances are, they want to compete, period. Watching the results fly in from our virtual ‘League’ meet confirms that fact; not only did you athletes decide to participate, but you chose events that aren’t easy and require mental and physical toughness.

Take Vibha Iyengar and Ananya Rajagopal for example; they both decided to choose the 100 burpee challenge and low plank hold as their two ‘field’ events. Both of these require intense discipline and focus; the easy way out is to slow down, to give up, to drop mid-plank. But neither of these athletes have done that. Both have seen their already impressive 100 burpee challenge times drop, and their low plank hold times increase. That’s the type of courage and intensity that will lead to success in life: deciding to take the hard road and then sticking with it even when legs start shaking, breath becomes short and that nast little voice inside says ‘just quit! Lay down! Watch tiger king again!’. Good job ladies!!!!

Around the town more impressive performances came in, as Sylvana smashed 40 pushups in just over a minute while down the hall Nerea was adding an impressive 45 seconds to her low plank hold (2:45). Vivian Cheng and Trisha Sathish both earned PRs in the low plank hold to match their sweep of PRs on the ‘track’ in their various events from ~100 up to ~1 mile. Jackie Chang joined the party with a near 1 second PR in her ~150m dash in a clean 20.1 seconds, while Justine Garcia got in the mix and burned up the Apple Campus with impressive 150 and 400m times.

Parky Sood continued his assault on the Kennedy bus circle as he has trimmed off nearly 3 seconds from the start of the season from his ~200m run and a full MINUTE off his ~mile run. XC in your future perhaps Mr. Sood? Across town Captain Vishal must have seen Coach post his 2:32 low plank hold and held out just longer, earning a PR in 2:35 to accompany a nice mile run PR as well. Coach Flatow – you may have a few new folks on the squad come fall!

To everyone who has been competing, keep it up. You’re not only staying in shape and pushing your body which will help come next season, but more importantly you’re teaching yourself the valuable lesson of self-motivation; finding your own targets to pick and go after. Remember for most of you, after high school (college in some cases) that will be the case for the rest of your life! Coach Flatow and I don’t chase down 26 year old former athletes and give them workout plans or races – they have to decide for themselves that exercise and hard work are important enough to complete! This Friday is SCVAL and there is no time better to train hard this week and chase down some new PRs!